INTERNATIONAL TRADE RELATIONS OF UZBEKISTAN: REFORMS, PARTNERS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

Uzbekistan’s international trade relations have undergone a profound transformation since the launch of its economic liberalisation programme in 2016. Once a relatively closed, commodity-dependent economy, the country recorded a historic foreign trade turnover of US$81.2 billion in 2025 — an increase of 20.7 percent over the previous year — while trading with 210 countries. This paper examines the evolving architecture of Uzbekistan’s foreign trade: the regulatory and institutional reforms underpinning its opening, including its bid for World Trade Organization membership; the structure and geography of its exports and imports; its key bilateral relationships with China, Russia, Central Asian neighbours, the European Union, the United States and India; and the connectivity constraints imposed by its doubly landlocked geography. The study finds that Uzbekistan’s trade expansion is increasingly broad-based — spanning gold, copper, textiles, agri-food and a rapidly growing services sector — yet remains concentrated among a small group of partners and exposed to transit and commodity-price risks. The paper concludes that World Trade Organization accession, export diversification into higher value-added manufactures, and corridor development will define the trajectory of Uzbekistan’s international trade to 2030.

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